Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1443447
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 JANUARY 2022 NEWS Former Saudi spymaster Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri acquired Maltese citizenship MATTHEW VELLA A United States judge has dis- missed a lawsuit against a for- mer top Saudi intelligence official who is now a Maltese citizen, by a Saudi state-owned firm ruling that a rarely used U.S. government intervention to stop the release of classified information prevented the case from proceeding. The Saudi Arabian govern- ment's hunt for its former spymaster, Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri, is also taking place in Malta, with a request to pre- vent the sale of a Sliema apart- ment owned by Al Jabri. The U.S. decision was a defeat for Saudi Arabian ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS. Jabri effectively received support from the U.S. government, which invoked a state secrets clause to prevent the case from proceeding fur- ther. Jabri is a former major-gener- al, minister of state and long- time adviser to deposed Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef of Saudi Arabia. He has been living in exile in Canada since May 2017, having acquired Maltese citizenship in 2016 through the Individual Investor Programme. In 2020, Jabri accused crown prince Mohammed Bin Sal- man in a civil suit in U.S. fed- eral court of sending agents in 2018 to Canada to kill him. In January 2021, a group of Saudi state-owned firms alleged in a lawsuit in Canada that Jabri embezzled billions of dollars of state funds while working at the Ministry of Interior. In the Maltese court case, the Saudi-registered Sakab Sau- di Holding Company is trying to stop Jabri and his Cayman Islands company Ten Leaves Management, from selling a Tigné Point apartment. Sakab, part of a group of 17 companies set up by the King- dom of Saudi Arabia, claims Jabri used offshore structures to distribute €6 billion in funds to other commercial entities between 2008 and 2017, fun- nelled to other members of the Sakab group, allegedly on Jabri's instructions. The firms are owned by the Saudi state sovereign wealth fund of which MbS is the chair- man. Jabri denies the allegation. But Sakab is part of a network of front companies used for clandestine security operations with the United States. But in September, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines took the extraordinary step of intervening in the Mas- sachusetts case, invoking the state secrets privilege to halt the release of classified infor- mation deemed harmful to national security, after noting Jabri's intention to "describe information concerning alleged national security activities." Jabri also alleged in a 2020 U.S. lawsuit that Canadian au- thorities foiled a plot to kill him by a "hit squad" sent by MbS, less than two weeks after the October 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh denies Jabri's allega- tion and MbS's involvement in Kashoggi's murder. Saudi lawsuit against 'Maltese' spymaster dismissed KARL AZZOPARDI A new Commissioner for Inmates' Welfare will be tasked with reviewing prisoner deaths so as to ensure there is no irregularity and signs of mistreat- ment, a legal notice published this year shows. The post of prisons commissioner was one of the 32 recommendations forwarded by a government inquiry into prison operations, set up in the wake of the death of 30-year-old in- mate Colin Galea, who died days af- ter committing suicide in Corradino Correctional Facility. The inquiry al- so forced the resignation of maligned director Alex Dalli, a former army official who presided over a spike in deaths inside the Maltese prison. The new prisons commissioner will be tasked with examining the Correc- tional Services Agency's safeguards and measures that are necessary to ensure that any treatment, decision or rules are in accordance with the law and established standards. The commissioner will also carry out regular inspections, at least monthly, of all prisons, to ascertain the rights of prisoners are being upheld. The individual charged with the po- sition will have unrestricted access to all parts of the facilities within the prisons and to prisoners' records, as well as the right to interview any pris- oner in such facility in private. A report on any possible breach of human rights, of any legislative breach, and any recommendations made by the Commissioner to the Corrective Services Agency during that year will be submitted to the Prison Board every June. The prisons board will serve as an arbiter between the Commissioner, and the prisons agency, the CSA. Prison commissioner to review deaths inquiries